


Bare my skin and count my sins

by Andramion, boxofwonder



Series: Cat of Destiny fics [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Graphic Description of Injuries, M/M, Multi, Other, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, [waves hand] this is not the penetration you are looking for, aone is a blessing and will protect Oikawa's life choices, minor Iwaizumi/Yachi, rated M for the violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 17:42:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7901833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andramion/pseuds/Andramion, https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxofwonder/pseuds/boxofwonder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oikawa Tooru is a fan of plants. He really is. It’s just that, when you open your shop and half of your merchandise attacks you due to a fairly persistent parasite infestation worsening their mood by the day, it kind of tones down that affection.</p><p>-</p><p>In which Oikawa finds the back room of his flower shop filled with things he definitely didn't leave there. A gun, for example, but the broken window and the bloodsplatters count too. His past is rearing it's ugly, ugly head and Iwaizumi? Iwaizumi is in trouble and needs his help ASAP.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bare my skin and count my sins

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written through Nico and my "Cat of Destiny" method.
> 
> We put strips of paper with prompts my cat lamp, took turns writing and grabbed a pulled a prompt every two paragraphs.
> 
> We did write this as seriously as we could, and I like to think we succeeded.
> 
> I hope you have fun reading!
> 
> p.s. [Oikawa at Kuroo's feet](https://youtu.be/jNFgynmVmx0?t=4s)

Oikawa Tooru is a fan of plants. He really is. It’s just that, when you open your shop and half of your merchandise attacks you due to a fairly persistent parasite infestation worsening their mood by the day, it kind of tones down that affection.

Still, Oikawa fights his way through lashing vines and snapping fly-traps until he closes the door to the back-room behind him safely. He’s sure there should be some phone number he could call to get the parasites fumigated in a way that doesn’t hurt his plants, but well… it’s a matter of pride too. What good is a magical florist who can’t even calm down his plants?

Of course, the first moment he gets to take a calming breath is interrupted immediately when he notices a gleaming disaster of an item on the desk across the room. It’s loose cradled in a bunch of paper that seems to be Oikawa’s newspaper from yesterday, but even from this distance, Oikawa can see what it is, feel it.

“Oh, I’m gonna -” he mutters as he makes his way over, impatiently throwing the paper open to reveal a silver gun, emblazoned with runes that have only just barely lost their glow. It’s clearly recently forged, probably in anticipation of this catastrophe - like hell is Oikawa going anywhere near this thing for anything but to get rid of it.

He carefully pushes it further onto the table, away from the edge. Guns like these.. they don’t belong near the general public, and _definitely_ not in a simple flower shop like Oikawa’s, even if he sometimes threatens to shoot the red-glowing bellflower when it refuses to retract its claws during watering time.

They’re not for sport, or hunting, not the regular kind anyway. They’re tools for hunting humans, witches, magic-users like Oikawa, magicians that have already done everything in their power to get away from.. from _them._

Just as he takes his fingers off of the packaging, he spots something else: a stain, close to the window and really, he isn’t this unobservant when he’s had a normal night’s sleep, but.. the window’s glass has shattered, but there are no shards on the floor. The only thing there, right in front of the window sill, is a collection of dark splotches.

With a hand fumbling his collar, Oikawa steps closer and softly prays to himself. “Please tell me this is not what I’m thinking,” he mumbles. “Tell me that’s ketchup.”

It certainly is ketchup, if ketchup smells like metal and has a rusty brown-red colour nowadays.

“I’m going to faint,” Oikawa mutters, wiping his sweaty palms on his vest as his mind is trying to come up with an explanation or a course of action to take.

The fact that there’s an enchanted gun resting on his table that bears the magical imprint of a certain someone rules out that Oikawa could get the cops involved - no, this matter is better left within their coven. The coven Oikawa has tried to leave and forget for the longest time, making a living with his flower shop instead. And how good it has been – he’s loved every second of it, and if he could choose, Oikawa would happily take care of this infestation right now and salvage his shop, and fall back into his routine.

Instead, it seems, his past finally caught up with him. He’d never even had a chance to outrun it, had he?

He _actually_ almost faints when a head pops up from behind the broken window. He curses loudly, explicitly, and all that greets him in return is hearty laughter and a figure climbing in and wrapping him in his arms.

“Miss me?” Kuroo asks him, and he presses a kiss to Oikawa’s lips, doesn’t stop until Oikawa’s shivery hands make their way into his ridiculous hair. It’s good, Oikawa thinks, Kuroo is here, they can’t find me if Kuroo is here, they can’t. Right?

When Kuroo pulls back - a little breathless, nonchalant laughter waiting somewhere in his throat, so warm and solid and _normal -_ Oikawa chases him, wraps his arms around him and buries his face in his neck. Breathes in, breathes out.

“Woah,” Kuroo mumbles, voice as warm as it is concerned. “Everything alright? I missed you, too, babe.”

It’s so mundane, so _grounding._ Oikawa wants to cry, and he never wants to let Kuroo know - not about his past, or that it’s still haunting him. That there’s blood and a broken window and a _gun_ and that all of it could endanger everyone around him.

What if _they_ find him? What if they drag Kuroo into this, too?

There’s a loud bang coming from the shop and then all the sounds - the whistling from the plant Oikawa has yet to identify, the rattling of the Starsplinter bumping into its cage, the thuds of the Weeping Galaxy throwing its tantrum - they all stop. Oikawa and Kuroo look at each other for only a second before they yank open the door and burst into the shop.

“Heeeeeeeeeeeey!” a tiny blond witch calls as she turns around in the middle of the room. All the plants have fallen quiet and Oikawa _should’ve_ known, there’s only one person who can calm them down when they’re in a tizzy. He’s never really seen her like _this_ , though, hair a little dishevelled, the constellations of her tattoos running across her arms in disarray as she swings a bottle of booze into his and Kuroo’s eyesight.

“I’ve got something to celebrate!” Yachi announces, and then she hiccups for good measurement.

Kuroo shoots Oikawa a concerned glance, and Oikawa feels tongue-tied and put on the spot because everything is so _mundane_ and how will he explain the blood, the gun, the - ?

“I met my soulmate,” Yachi slurs, and then stumbles into a seat next to the Weeping Galaxy (which does seem quite fitting for the state of her tattoo). She reaches up to stroke the petals affectionately curling towards her, and then bursts into tears. Kuroo is at her side immediately, Oikawa following slowly, still numb. Should he leave a weapon like the one in his backroom unattended in a room with a shattered window and blood splatters all over?

And all the while, Yachi keeps crying as Kuroo strokes her arm, soothes the tattoo back into array, the stars returning to their proper placement. He keeps murmuring something to her, and eventually, like a damn breaking open, Yachi tells them why this wonderful news is something to cry about so much.

“But they’re with _Caedis._ ”

The name of his coven falling Yachi’s lips in a broken sob hits Oikawa like lightning, roots him to the spot. His eyes flit to Kuroo softly shushing her, his gentle eyes. What would his boyfriend think if he knew? What would Yachi think?

“I’m -” he chokes out, stumbling backwards. He needs that weapon to disappear, and fast. “I’ll be right back, I’ll make you a hot chocolate, Yacchan.”

Yachi protests a little - something about her already having a drink, but Oikawa doesn’t want her to finish that bottle because who knows what will happen to his floors then? Instead, he makes his way into the back room again, folds the paper back around the gun and stashes it into the nearest drawer, slides the window up and clicks it into place to hide the fact that there’s not glass in it. It’s a bit breezy, but better than anyone asking questions about it.

Then, after he’s sure to pull the rug up to the window, he starts the kettle and waits. He can hear Yachi and Kuroo talking in the other room, the sound of their voices carrying through, but he can’t make out their words. His collar is tight, his palms sweaty as they close around the empty mug and he leans on the kitchen counter.

The door squeaks and Oikawa jumps, a surge of magic rising under his skin, but he only just manages to keep it in when he sees it’s Kuroo, it’s just Kuroo. He lets go of his breath, letting it ebb out of him. When he looks up, Kuroo has his head cocked to the left, a concerned look on his face.

“Yacchan fell asleep, so I thought I’d… come here. Are you okay, Tooru?”

Kuroo’s gaze is open and honest and concerned, and for a minute, Oikawa wants to tell him everything. Wants to sink into his arms and be held, because if Kuroo reassured him that things would be alright, maybe Oikawa could believe it.

But maybe, maybe Kuroo would never touch him again. Join Yachi on the bawling side, ‘cause hey, who wanted soulmates who were part of Caedis, right? Even if they had tried to run and escape and leave it all behind for so long, when they had almost convinced themselves it was working.

Kuroo’s fingers wrap around his, solid and warm, stilling the tremors in Oikawa’s hands.

“Tooru,” he whispers now, urgent and low. He’s so good, he’s everything Oikawa could have wanted and more. He makes things better, having him along with this flower shop, seeing his happy and satisfied customers every day, helping people out… Even with Yachi out cold in the shop, Oikawa feels more secure knowing Kuroo is there.

Oikawa can’t lose this. He can’t.

“I can explain,” he chokes out, and Kuroo wraps him up in a crushing hug.

“Explain what?” he breathes against the shell of Oikawa’s ear, a secret only between them. And all Oikawa can feel is terrified that Kuroo would never hold him like this again if he knew the truth.

“I…” Oikawa starts, and his skin itches with the magic welling up under his emotional state, his insecurity letting his grip on it slip. But then, without warning, without him doing anything, it’s gone.

Oikawa shrugs himself loose from Kuroo’s grasp, looks around the room, but there’s nothing there, there’s nobody there but him and Kuroo. Nothing but him and Kuroo, no magic, no charge in the air, nothing to keep locked up deep inside him, nothing welling up as his heart beats overtime.

His collar feels even tighter when he rushes over to the desk again and pulls open the drawer, but there’s nothing, _it’s not there,_ and he shuts the drawer with a loud slam, pulls every other drawer open but _it’s not there_ and it should be, he’s _not_ going crazy here, because he _knows_ those runes were Iwa-chan’s, he would recognise his childhood friend’s magic _anywhere._

And the only reason it would be left here and then disappear is one Oikawa refuses to believe exists.

He can hear Kuroo calling his name, but it’s soft and distant, the blood rushing to his head is silencing the sound and he finds himself by the window, looking out to the streets, but _of course_ he wouldn’t be there, it’s already morning, stupid, loyal Iwa-chan who wouldn’t even leave when his _best friend_ begged him to, that Iwa-chan will have made his way back to them by now. The blood had already dried when Oikawa came in and… the blood!

Oikawa spins around quickly, nearly knocks into Kuroo’s chest in the motion, but he looks up and holds Kuroo’s face, ignores Kuroo’s confused and worried expression and kisses him harshly, quickly, putting all his heart into it.

“I’ve got to go, Kuroo.”

“Tooru,” Kuroo gasps, clasping his wrists, but Oikawa tears himself free.

“I am sorry,” he repeats. “I’ll figure this all out. All of this. You take care of Yacchan, alright?”

“I’m not letting you go alone,” Kuroo grits out, grasping for him again. “ _Talk to me._ I’m your damn boyfriend. I’m your _best_ friend.”

Oikawa only leans in and kisses him again, the words ‘not quite’ stuck in his throat. He treasures Kuroo, in a different way than he treasures Iwaizumi, even after all this time. The bonds between them are different, not necessarily stronger or weaker but... if that fool needs his help now, if it’s _him -_ then Oikawa can’t decide between them. The only option is to save them both.

“I’ll explain it all later. _Please.”_ He looks up at Kuroo, knows that he probably does not even deserve to speak those words, but Oikawa does so anyway. “Trust me.”

Kuroo raises his wrists to his lips and kisses them before he lets Oikawa go.

“You better return by tonight, because otherwise you’ll only have your anime pillows to keep you company in bed from here on out.”

“What a motivator,” Oikawa mutters on the automatic, his thoughts already miles away. He presses one last kiss to the corner of Kuroo’s lips and then climbs out of the window. There are things he needs to do, and urgently so.

* * *

As he runs through the streets, Oikawa tries not to notice how many potential customers he’s scaring. He knows his face is like thunder, his legs are burning with the exercise and his heart is beating so loudly, but he has to keep running.

He picked up on the syphon a while ago, the thin string still connecting him to his own magic, but it’s faint and weak and slipping away like a dream fades in the half-slumber after waking up. He hadn’t been able to remember how tiring it was to have his magic drained like that until it happened again, for the first time in years.

Iwaizumi is at the end of this tether, he _knows,_ because there’s only one reason for his magic to disappear, only one reason Iwaizumi’s magic could be in his shop, only one reason for Iwaizumi to show himself anywhere near Oikawa.

Oikawa can feel the tears leaving cold tracks across his hot cheeks as he runs, emotion bubbling up again because there’s only one explanation to all of this and he’s both elated and worried sick, because...

Iwa-chan had left the Caedis. After years of refusing to do so, he had.

And he’d been looking for Oikawa. Had found Oikawa.

And _they_ had found him.

And _someone_ was hurt.

 

Oikawa stares down at his hands, couldn’t believe that a little while ago his life had been whole and normal, as close to a normal life as someone who had been born into Caedis could get. Freaking out over his crush on Kuroo, raising his flower shop from the grounds up. Kissing his boyfriend and peptalking Yachi and falling asleep on the sofa with take-out food on the table.

And now? Now…

No, he decided, feet picking up pace even though his lungs were already burning. This wasn’t how it would end. No matter why Iwaizumi had decided to stay, it had allowed Oikawa to get as far as he had gone – now it was time to save his friend. To come clean with Kuroo, to let Iwaizumi meet his boyfriend, to have him by his side again. How could Oikawa have ever let Iwaizumi behind like that, why had he not fought harder, bargained Iwaizumi until he’d agreed to flee together? What kind of friend was he?

There was a hitch in his connection to Iwaizumi, and the connection he had to his own magic – to Iwaizumi’s location - faded away a little more.

“You’re not this weak,” Oikawa hissed, yanking at the thread of magic with all his might, trying to send some kind of signal across the line. “Hang in there, damn it!”

Ha, this is probably a trap in the first place - luring Oikawa in with Iwaizumi’s life as the bait. Fucking Caedis. Now how could he get his friend out of an obvious trap and not be captured by them? He’d promised Kuroo to return. Oikawa Tooru does not break his promises.

He runs past an alley and feels himself being pulled back, feels his magic’s position shifting in relation to him and he turns around, hides around the corner and peers into the alley. There’s nothing but a pile of junk - a broken chair, a beat-up guitar without strings, a couple of boxes - but something moves behind the stack and Oikawa slinks into the alley.

Carefully, gingerly, he puts his feet down on the asphalt and wishes he had his magic now, that he could silence his footfalls, ready himself to fight, but with Iwa-chan holding onto it so tightly, he can hardly imagine needing it more than him. There has to be a good reason, because for the years since Oikawa had fled, Iwa-chan had never even once tapped into Oikawa’s magic. Never.

Not caring an ounce about potential traps, he begins ripping apart the pile of trash, digging past boxes labelled as canned food he wouldn’t eat if the company waited a whole life time, past so much junk it couldn’t be coincidental. Finally, he hauls a wooden construction up and dumps it behind him, the magic giving way to Iwaizumi propped against the wall, breath coming fast and falling flat. He’s surrounded by a blue aura of magic. Green, glowing webbing is woven through wounds across his body, but he’s breathing and he’s alive.

And well enough to squint one eye open and rasp: “You’re late.”

He winces and groans when Oikawa rushes through the aura - aura only someone who shares this bond with him could pass - and hugs him as tightly as he dares, a whole new, different flood of tears breaking from him.

“Iwa-chan,” he chokes out, and Iwaizumi roughly pats his back.

“So you’re still a cry-baby,” Iwaizumi croaks into his ear, “good to know you haven’t changed completely. Even if you won’t use your magic to get your stupid plants in line.”

“They’re not stupid, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa replies automatically, old habits dying hard. “They’re smarter than you, you blockhead.” He lets out a shaky laugh, relieved to have Iwaizumi here, to know that he’s as okay as could be expected while running from Caedis. Oikawa’s condition had been worse after he’d left, but he’d always been better at hiding than Iwaizumi was.

What worries Oikawa most, though, is the way blood keeps seeping out of Iwa-chan’s wounds, not even the pressure and healing properties of the webbing is enough help. He touches his fingertips to the gash across Iwa-chan’s shoulder and upper chest. There’s a semi-clear purplish fluid collected at the edges of the wound.

“Sap from the Angel’s Cup,”  Oikawa breathes out, panic seeping into his bones as he looks Iwaizumi straight in the eyes. “Iwa-chan, I can’t fix this, this is Angel’s Cup, the only thing that can help is…”

“I know. True love’s kiss. My fucking _soulmate._ ”

In a moment of desperation, Oikawa strains forward and clumsily presses his lips to Iwaizumi’s, and they hold that awkward position for a heartbeat before he pulls away, heart thundering.

“Yuck,” Iwaizumi croaks, and Oikawa laughs as much as he cries.

“It was worth a try,” he offers, wiping his lips. God damn it.

“Soulmate,” Iwaizumi offers, breathing becoming even more flat. There’s a sheen of sweat on his forehead, and he is visibly struggling to an extent that is painful to watch. “I found -”

And then, something smashes through Oikawa’s chest with a horrible sound, final in a way that does not register, not even when Oikawa blinks down at the spear protruding from his chest. He doesn’t know whether he should be frustrated with the fact that all the reaction his brain manages to conjure is _Ah. Damn. This is really inconvenient._

“Iwa-chan,” he rasps, feeling blood well up. “Magic.”

As soon as it floods him again, Oikawa pushes onwards, ignoring the slurching noise of the spear yanked out a fraction, flames running back up it to raise a roaring fire behind Oikawa. Ignoring the pain, the screams behind him and how hard it is to breathe, he squeezes his eyes shut, thinks of Kuroo with all his might, his shop, his plants, everything, and _jumps._

* * *

 

Next thing he knows, he’s spitting blood at Kuroo’s feet, Iwaizumi safely cradled in his arms. _So much for the new carpet._

There’s a loud curse before Kuroo is on him, hands pressing to Oikawa’s wounds, panic contorting his face until Oikawa tells him “next door” and he flies out of the shop, an unnatural speed to his steps as his magic bleeds out.

Time is an elastic thing from then on, for Oikawa, stretching and condensing as he feels himself bleed out, the carpet becoming sticky wet under him. Iwa-chan’s hand lying in his is the only steady point in those moments, both their grips too weak to actually hold on to each other.

Oikawa doesn’t know how long it takes before Kuroo returns, Oikawa’s kind-hearted neighbour following after him, but Oikawa bites out an “Iwa-chan first” when Moniwa kneels down next to him and presses his glowing hands to Oikawa’s chest.

Moniwa looks back and forth between them until Iwa-chan speaks.

“Bullshit, Shittykawa first, I’m fine.”

At last, the problem is solved by Moniwa’s apprentice ducking through the doorway and taking care of Iwaizumi’s wounds - as much as he dares and as much as he can. Oikawa dimly makes out Kuroo squeezing his hand and crying and he wishes, really wishes he could reach up and brush the wet trails from his cheeks.

“I need to tell you,” he rasps.

“Shhh.” Kuroo raises Oikawa’s hand to his lips and presses a kiss to its back. “Not now. Save your strength.”

“I want you to know everything,” Oikawa gurgles, the pain so overbearing, too overbearing - “Iwa-chan, he -”

“He’s your soulmate. I know that much, I can see your marks. You can explain later.” Kuroo’s fingers trail patterns onto Oikawa’s skin as he feels his consciousness slipping. No, no, Moniwa can’t put him under -

“Don’t you da-”

And the world turns to black.

* * *

 

When Oikawa comes to, it’s to the sound of something simmering on the stove, and Moniwa’s taciturn giant of an assistant stooping to fit into the low-ceilinged kitchen of the upstairs apartment, telling Iwa-chan off.

“Vegetarian dishes are made _without_ meat,” Aone says, tone as serious as ever and Oikawa feels a rush of affection for him remembering his preferences, but Iwa-chan just waves him off.

“That idiot needs to replenish his strength and I don’t have the energy to go out and buy his tofu-shit. He can curse me to eternity but he’s gotta eat.”

“There’s a can of beans in the cupboard,” Oikawa manages to say, his voice sounding raspy to his own ears. Iwa-chan’s shoulders tense for a second, then he puts the pack of meat back into the fridge and turns around.

“Good to see you up,” he says, and Oikawa nearly falls off of his sofa in his haste to get to him. Iwaizumi sighs, tired, and walks over to Oikawa instead. He puts his hands to the webbing, fingers coming away red.

“You’re the one who should be lying down, nothing’s changed! I need to.. I need to find your..” Oikawa’s throat hurts when he swallows. “Your soulmate,” he continues, “are they… are they Caedis? Please tell me they’re not?”

“Why are you looking for his soulmate?” a voice asks from behind him and Oikawa turns his head up to see an upside-down Kuroo coming over to them, body strangely devoid of energy, voice weirdly passive.

“Because of his wounds, Kuroo-chan. They used Angel’s Cup sap. We need to find Iwa-chan’s soulmate and have them…”

“But you’re his soulmate. Aren’t you, Tooru?” Kuroo pushes the sleeve of Oikawa’s shirt up and reveals the markings that have started glowing now that he’s used his magic again - _their_ magic again. They shine like newly activated soul marks, fading and brightening constantly now that Iwa-chan is so close to him.

They’re not soulmates, they’re not. But Oikawa isn’t sure how to explain, how he could possibly explain without Kuroo pulling away, how could Kuroo still love him after he tells the truth?

A hand closes around his shoulder and Oikawa follows it to Iwa-chan’s face, his expression composed of furrowed eyebrows, a turned-down mouth and eyes like a thunder storm.

It’s time to come clean.

“I,” Oikawa starts, just like he’d planned to that morning. “I’m not his soulmate, but we’re… our magic is bonded. Twice as strong together, exponentially growing the closer we are.”

Realisation dawns on Kuroo’s face and Oikawa can’t watch whatever emotion follows it. His chest already hurts with just the knowledge of what will happen, but to actually have to go through it, to hear those words spat back at him…

“But that’s.. binding magic is _their_ thing, right? It’s.. you’re _Caedis_?”

Oikawa wishes he wasn’t lying down, that he could bow his head. Instead, his eyes flutter shut. He can’t watch the way Kuroo’s face crumbles, watch the way he looks at him change.

“Oi,” Iwaizumi growls. “Watch it, he risked _everything_ to leave while I sacrificed half my life staying in that hellhole to help him escape and keep him hidden. Both of us almost _died_ trying to get away. What kind of shitty boyfriend are you to even assume -”

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa mutters weakly, because this isn’t helping anything. Nothing at all.

“I’ll need a moment,” Kuroo says, oddly detached. And he gets up. And he leaves. It is exactly what Oikawa expected to happen, and yet -

He knew, and yet -

It hurts worse than the tender tissue of his mended wound. Worse than any of this. Worse than the fact that Iwaizumi keeps bleeding, with Aone at his side perpetually healing the damage left by the Angel’s Cup.

No soulmate to fix Iwaizumi. And no Kuroo anymore, either.

_This is just fantastic._

* * *

 

Oikawa’s chest still aches when he sits at the edge of the bathtub, dipping a washcloth into the hot water and flinching as he tries to scrub the blood off his chest. It’s the only thing he has any power in doing, but it hurts and he wishes he could help Iwaizumi and reach out to Kuroo and -

There’s a soft knock on the door.

“I didn’t die yet,” he calls back. Jeez, as if he couldn’t clean himself.

“I’m glad,” comes Kuroo’s voice from the doorway, and then he closes it behind them. Oikawa sits frozen, can’t turn around and face him. But he can hear and feel him coming over to take the washcloth from Oikawa’s hands.

“May I?” he asks, and his voice is softer than Oikawa’s ever heard it.

Weak, his voice leaving him, Oikawa nods and slumps backwards into Kuroo’s chest as Kuroo dips the cloth into water and washes off the blood with gentle care, mindful fingers. They do not speak, but Oikawa doesn’t need Kuroo to, when his actions speak so clearly.

When Kuroo wraps a fluffy towel around him from behind, he doesn’t let go. Just holds Oikawa, and he breathes. They both do.

“Kuroo -” Oikawa begins, but Kuroo shushes him.

“I almost lost you tonight,” he rasps. Squeezes Oikawa just a little tighter.

“But I’m here,” Oikawa whispers back.

And that’s enough for now.”

And just like that, _something_ is alright with this world.

* * *

 

“Incredible,” Kuroo whispers, as he holds Oikawa’s foot, spreading his big toe away from the rest and looking at the skin in between. “This is so tiny, how did you even find out?”

“We,” Oikawa swallows before going on, “us kids born into.. into that coven I mean, we get searched for our marks straight away. I’ve always known it was there, so when you took off your shirt when the Weeping Galaxy emptied over your head.. That’s when I knew, Kuroo.”

Kuroo shifts on the sofa and drops Oikawa’s foot, pulling his legs up and sliding closer to him, letting Oikawa’s lower half rest on his lap.

“So that’s why that happened? Your magic exploded because we met and _that_ ’s why the fucking plant threw up on me?”

“Wept on you,” Oikawa corrects and he nods. “Yes, precisely.”

“Wait a second, it took us another three months to get together!”

Oikawa shrugs. “Soulmates are terrifying.”

He looks over at Iwaizumi on the other sofa, eyes closed as Aone sits next to him, hands hovering over the wounds that still won’t close. He’s kept quiet about Iwaizumi’s soulmate all evening, but knows they should talk.

“Speaking of,” he starts, “what about your soulmate, Iwa-chan? You said Caedis found you because of your Burst? Couldn’t we find them and get them to kiss you and then you’ll be okay?”

Iwaizumi shakes his head where it’s resting on the sofa, the motion slow.

“I was trying to get out of that place as fast as possible, so I shouted I was Caedis. They have to have heard me. They won’t want to have anything to do with me.”

There’s a soft knock coming from inside the bedroom, and Iwaizumi’s voice lowers as it opens softly.

“So it’s fine. Caedis thinks I’m dead and Aone here said he’ll stay close until we find something else. Or we’ll just be best friends until the end, right, buddy?”

Aone nods and then turns to look at the bedroom, where Yachi – dressed in one of Oikawa’s pyjamas, curtesy of Kuroo – rubs the sleep from her eyes and steps into the living room.

“Oikawa-san, Kuroo-san, I’m so sorry for barging in like this and intruding, I should probably…”

She stops speaking when she sees there are more people in the room, and Oikawa watches her wide-eyed gaze settle on Iwaizumi.

“C-c-c,” she says, pointing one hand at him, the other clutching Oikawa’s pyjamas over her heart. “ _Caedis.”_ She sags down onto the floor, still staring at Iwaizumi, a blush high on her cheeks and a disbelieving raise to her eyebrows.

“Not anymore,” Iwaizumi tells her, already getting up even though Aone tries to press him back down into his chair to finish the healing.

“Not anymore,” Oikawa repeats, and Yachi looks at him, “just like me.”

“They’re okay, Yacchan,” Kuroo chips in, gesturing to Oikawa on his lap. “My soulmate is just my soulmate, and he’s been incredibly brave to leave, and start anew.”

Yachi nods, and Oikawa can see the determination in her eyes. God, he loves this girl.

“Well then,” Yachi says, despite her shaking voice, despite her shaking legs as she stands up. “So is mine.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> We stayed up a whole night to write and edit this and to be able to post it immediately, and now we really need to grab that half hour of sleep we can still get.
> 
> If you liked it, please leave us a comment! They absolutely make our day!


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